Tuesday, April 5, 2011

A resolution hopefully many trade union branches and organisations will support on climate change

Climate jobs resolution -please forward on and support

1) At its 2010 conference, the TUC called for the creation of one million
green jobs to tackle unemployment and the environmental crisis, following the
publication of the “Million Climate Jobs” report by the Campaign Against
Climate Change, with the support of the PCS, UCU, TSSA & CWU unions.

2) That Campaign Against Climate Change has now launched a People's Petition
for a Million Climate Jobs (text below), which is initially endorsed by

This branch believes that positive arguments for job creation need to be part
of our fight against the cuts, and therefore welcomes this petition as a
contribution to that.

This branch therefore resolves to endorse the petition, and to publicise it
to members in a forthcoming newsletter.

The Petition

We the undersigned call on the Government to give urgent and serious
consideration to the recommendations of the One Million Climate Jobs report
including:

1. We face a global climate crisis. If we do not halt the increase in
greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 the “prospects for the people on the
planet are looking pretty bleak” (The Secretary of State for the
Environment, reported 24.11.10)
2. Britain faces a global economic crisis, with rising youth unemployment
and the predicted loss of over a million jobs due to austerity measures.
3. We need the Government to take urgent steps to address both these
crises through the creation of a million climate jobs aimed at reducing
greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing energy efficiency, developing renewable
and environmentally friendly sources of energy, and training workers in the
“green skills” necessary for a sustainable low carbon economy.
4. Given the urgency and enormity of this task, we want the Government to
employ staff directly in secure jobs, to do the necessary work through a
National Climate Service.
5. We call for an immediate, fully government-funded programme to promote
energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy in existing and new
buildings.
6. We call for Government funding for free or low fare public transport
services and the expansion and integration of public transport networks to
reduce the use of private cars; for major investment in extending the rail
network and introducing faster and more efficient trains; and the phasing-out
of domestic airline flights as soon as practicable
7. We call for direct intervention by the proposed Climate Service to
create new industries, and convert existing and declining industries, to
conduct the research, development, manufacture and installation of
alternative technologies for generating electricity from renewable sources.
8. We call on the Government to finance free programmes of “Green
Skills” training through Further Education.
9. Such proposals can be met at a net cost well within the scale of recent
Government spending on the financial sector and would be far less costly than
the possible alternative – catastrophic climate change.
10. By adopting such a programme Britain would set a standard for the rest
of the world, especially the developed world responsible for the crisis, in
taking the decisive action necessary to limit global warming and ensure that
future generations are left an inhabitable planet.

About Me

We believe that the function of socialists must be to support the self organisation of working people in their struggles against all forms of oppression, both at home and internationally.
We totally reject sectarianism, where one group puts its interests above that of the working class.
e.mail: socialistresistance.sussex@googlemail.com